Bees bowling

gunny · September 29, 2007, 11:16:53 PM

Noticed some moth activity in one of my hives a couple of weeks ago. Rolled a couple of moth balls into the hive. Next morning the girls had rolled them out. I waited till night and rolled them in again. Next moring, they were out agian, this time they rolled them out on the ground. I'm gonna take a guess a say they don't like moth balls much. Not that I do either.
Appears that the moths have moved on. I believe that the moth balls kill the moths, their eggs and the larva. Any opinions if we need to keep rolling those moth balls back in or a few days of it has done the job? Girls would probably be able to find things to do other than roll moth balls around.

Cindi · September 29, 2007, 11:21:30 PM

Gunny, wow, that is a funny story, hooda thunk?

Maybe you have found an alternative method for wax moth control :) ;) The moth ball obviously only stayed on the bottomboard, and probably rolled around all over it with the bees kicking it around. How interesting!! Yeah!!!!!

I can't see that it would do any harm to the colony or honey for that matter. Have a wonderful day, best of this beautiful life. Cindi

rdy-b · September 29, 2007, 11:36:10 PM

you are lucky your bees are not dead moth balls will kill bees- :( RDY-B

Cindi · September 30, 2007, 12:29:01 AM

RDY-B. Whew!!!!!! What a horrid thought. I have learned something that is totally great learning today, I would not have had a clue that moth balls would cause harm to the honeybee. Eee gads, so glad that you read this post, yeah!!!! Beautiful day in this life. Cindi

BeeHopper · September 30, 2007, 05:34:45 AM

Quote from: gunny on September 29, 2007, 11:16:53 PM
Noticed some moth activity in one of my hives a couple of weeks ago. Rolled a couple of moth balls into the hive. Next morning the girls had rolled them out. I waited till night and rolled them in again. Next moring, they were out agian, this time they rolled them out on the ground. I'm gonna take a guess a say they don't like moth balls much. Not that I do either.
Appears that the moths have moved on. I believe that the moth balls kill the moths, their eggs and the larva. Any opinions if we need to keep rolling those moth balls back in or a few days of it has done the job? Girls would probably be able to find things to do other than roll moth balls around.

Your Girls like a clean house :-D

gunny · September 30, 2007, 10:40:15 AM

Quote from: rdy-b on September 29, 2007, 11:36:10 PM
you are lucky your bees are not dead moth balls will kill bees- :( RDY-B

You sure about that?

Have not seen any dead bees in or around the hive.

I'm sure it will in a high enough concentration.

They seem to not be suffering any ill effcts from rolling the 2 moth balls out every day.

A little later today I'll take a look in the hive and see whats going on and report back here.

I'm a little paranoid about moths, have lost a couple of hives to them in the past. I feel, through experience, that a strong hive will take care of itself and keep moths out. Have had good luck with entrance reducers helping with this too. This hive is from a swarm out of a trap in late June and it seems like the moths are especially attracted to it for some reason. See then on the sides and under the hive box evenings before dark. My other hives do not seem to have this problem.

Michael Bush · September 30, 2007, 01:22:52 PM

>>you are lucky your bees are not dead moth balls will kill bees
>You sure about that?

Yes.

But that was only two and they removed them.

rdy-b · September 30, 2007, 02:46:04 PM

they are in the category of pesticide (weather its PARA or NAPTHA ) only difference is residue contamination. moth balls are the easiest way to put a colony down if infected with AFB. you got lucky because you did not close entrance. I do not know the number of moth balls that is required. but i think two could easily kill a queen . STOP PLAYING WITH MOTH BALLS for the sake of your bees.best of luck with the wax moths may be someone can help you out in that catigorey.only time i get them is after box is emptey dead out. 8-) RDY-B 8-)

Old Timer · September 30, 2007, 06:26:51 PM

you should never even use moth balls for storing supers, much less put any into a live hive.

Michael Bush · September 30, 2007, 10:53:17 PM

If you want to kill wax moth larvae on comb with bees on the combs, then shake them off and freeze it or use Bt (Certan) on it. Also, if there are wax moths in a hive with bees, there is too much room for them to guard it and you should reduce it down to what they can take care of.

bassman1977 · October 01, 2007, 12:35:26 PM

Napthalene in mothballs have also been known to cause cateracts in humans. Wonder if it would affect the bees! :lol: (J/K)

gunny · October 01, 2007, 11:28:02 PM

Thanks

Go the moth balls out and it appears that the bees have survived OK. They don't even seem to be upset with me.

Michael Bush · October 02, 2007, 07:48:15 AM

http://www.beeworks.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=18

Cindi · October 02, 2007, 09:45:00 AM

Michael, Certain (B401) I read is a form of Bacillus Thuringiensis. I wonder if the "regular" Bt that I have used in my gardens to combat catarpillar type invaders would work as well. I actually didn't realize that there were other formso of Bt, I thought it was just one type. Hmmm...learning stuff new always today and a day more. Have a wonderful day, best of this great life. Cindi

Scadsobees · October 02, 2007, 01:52:46 PM

Aren't moth CRYSTALS the PDB and the balls Napthalene? Or do they make the PDB into balls too?

You don't want to mess with Napthalene(?) because it will be absorbed into the wax.

Two balls in the bottom of the hive for a few hours probably won't hurt much, but I don't think that it would affect the moths either, considering that the bees werent' affected much either.

Bad idea either way...sorry.... :roll:

Rick

Kev · October 02, 2007, 07:33:28 PM

Quote from: Cindi on October 02, 2007, 09:45:00 AM
I wonder if the "regular" Bt that I have used in my gardens to combat catarpillar type invaders would work as well.

I think there are several strains of Bt, for mosquitos, potato beetles, corn borers, etc. so it might or might not work on wax moth.

Kev

Michael Bush · October 02, 2007, 07:42:56 PM

I've only used the stuff from Beeworks and the XenTari which are both labeled for wax moths.

reinbeau · October 02, 2007, 10:34:53 PM

Cindi, there are many different strains of BT - not to say that what you have wouldn't work, if it'll kill caterpillars then it should do the trick, but I'd still stick with the Certan for honey supers, only because I'm anal about stuff like that :evil:.

Michael Bush · October 03, 2007, 07:55:38 AM

The people who have tried the Bt from the garden center made for cabbage worms and such say it works fine. I have not tried it.

Cindi · October 03, 2007, 10:30:46 AM

All interesting stuff. I have not encountered the wax moth (thank goodness). I know that it exists here, but I froze all my frames last year and stored them in my husband's garage afterwards :evil: My poor husband, he was overrun with my stuff in their last year, I kind of felt sorry for him, but then, tough bananas eh!!! Oh, that was not nice. He is wonderful, he didn't mind too much, but it sure did make it hard when he wanted to head out to the open road for a ride on his Fat Boy!!!!!

He transformed one of our old box stalls into a bee house for me this spring and now I store all my stuff there. I am not going to use any chemicals in the supers. I have them stacked neatly, will be cleaning them up eventually, ha, whenever that time comes. Don't know where the time goes, but I had best get my act together.

I am going to put little strips of tuc tape to close up the supers 100% so that no moths can sneak in at any point in time. Hopefully that will work. We will have a deep freeze in January (most likely) that will kill anything that will be in the supers hanging around. The box stall is certainly not a very warm place, brrrr.....

We'll see come spring if this was a good motion or not, hopefully so. Have a wonderful day, best of this great life. Cindi